Design : Unknown

The Impure
 

Alan Rudolph | USA | 1972

Writer/filmmaker Alan Rudolph's arresting first work was this surreal horror oddity, about a bunch of hippie musicians which smoke dope gleaned from an unusual red desert flower, and subsequently experience some terrifyingly whacked-out hallucinations. Premonition — the film's original title — reveals itself as a disturbingly visual ‘trip’ which takes the viewer through a dreamlike series of horrific and sinister vignettes, as each member of its relatively small cast sinks deeper into a confused state of shared psychosis…

Appropriately enough, The Impure features music which was partly composed by keyboardist Alex Del Zoppo of Sweetwater (the first band to play at Woodstock), who takes a turn here along with bassist Fred Herrera; the pair play a couple of rock group members. Sadly this was leading man Carl Crow's final film — he drowned seven years later in 1979.

The film first appeared on tape in September 1983 on Gerald Good’s independent Abacus Video label, under the correct title of Premonition. Its next outing arrived in late 1986 from Astra Video — ‘The Masters of Horror’, set up by Robert Parkinson.  Astra Video was actually a cheeky sideline of Network Distribution, a Northants based label which first appeared in May 1984 ; Network went under a variety of guises including European Creative Films — host for pre-cut re-releases of The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue and Contamination.

 

 

 

Network re-titled the film using the video-generated “The Impure”, and misleadingly tacked on Mike Behr’s Astra Video logo — replete with fake catalogue number — to its otherwise colourful sleeve! As well as this outrageous attempt to ‘piggy back’ on Astra’s unique brand, the release was further ballyhooed by the inclusion of Tom Savini’s moustached likeness, engulfed by the sticky disembodied head and hands of the corpse seen in the Father's Day episode of George A. Romero's Creepshow!

Around the time of its Astra Video release, Rudolph’s film also came  out on tape on two other labels: re-titled Head on the obscure Turbophase label and as The Impure — Wild Rider on the Surrey-based AVR Home Entertainment label.

More recently, The Impure appeared on disc with the title Head, released by 23rd Century DVD, a dubious grey market label.

Two alternative releases can be found here and here.

 

aka : Head; Premonition; The Impure — Wild Rider

cast : Carl Crow, Tim Ray, Winfrey Hester Hill, Victor Izay, Judith Patterson, Michele Fitzsimmons, Durt C. Lodd, Eddie Patterson, Barry Brown, Miles Tilton, Doug Digioia, Cheryl Adams, Diana Daves, John Holman, Tom Akers, Alex Del Zoppo, Fred Herrera